New UN initiative aims to harness power of social media to fight global hunger

New UN initiative aims to harness power of social media to fight global hunger

1 February 2012 – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is launching a week-long campaign in which users of the popular online trivia game Freerice can recruit their friends to help bring food to the world’s most vulnerable populations.

World Freerice Week, from 6 to 11 February, will have as its theme “6 Degrees of Freerice,” according to a news release issued by the Rome-based agency, which is calling on Freerice fans to recruit six friends to join in the online fight against hunger.

“Imagine what we could achieve if we each invite six of our friends to help us donate rice to hungry kids. Freerice allows everyone to make a real-world impact with just the click of a mouse,” said Nancy Roman, WFP Director of Communications, Public Policy and Private Partnerships.

With each correct answer on Freerice, 10 grains of rice are donated to WFP to feed hungry people around the world, paid for by sponsored banners on the site. Players can choose from 45,000 questions in a range of subjects, including flags of the world, chemistry and literature, and in six languages.

Freerice currently has over one million registered players, who together have donated nearly 100 billion grains of rice to feed almost five million people since the game’s launch in 2007.

During World Freerice Week, players can create groups on Freerice.com that include “Freerice6” in the group title. Group founders can ask their friends to join and to each invite an additional six friends.

Prizes will be given to the group founders who have the most people in their group or whose group has donated the most rice, as well as to the individual who has donated the most rice during the week.

“Almost one billion people go to bed hungry every night,” said Ms. Roman. “With 6 Degrees of Freerice, we’re on our way to harnessing the power of online networks to make a difference in the fight against hunger.”

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WFP Launches World Freerice Week To Fight Hunger Through The Power Of Social Media.

1 February 2012

The theory of “Six Degrees of Separation” says that every person in the world is connected to every other person in the world through, at most, six other people. Through its online hunger-fighting game Freerice.com, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) is encouraging Freerice players to use these connections to bring food to the world’s most vulnerable populations.

ROME– WFP will launch World Freerice Week from 6-11 February with the theme of “6 Degrees of Freerice.” WFP is calling on Freerice fans to recruit six friends to join in the online fight against hunger. By playing the trivia games at Freerice.com during World Freerice Week, players can win prizes and have fun while feeding the hungry.

“Each of us is only six degrees away, or less, from someone who does not know where she will find her next meal,” said Nancy Roman, WFP Director of Communications, Public Policy and Private Partnerships. “Imagine what we could achieve if we each invite six of our friends to help us donate rice to hungry kids. Freerice allows everyone to make a real-world impact with just the click of a mouse.”

Freerice is not your average online trivia game. With each correct answer, ten grains of rice are donated to WFP to feed hungry people around the world, paid for by sponsored banners on the site. Players can choose from 45,000 questions in a range of subjects, including flags of the world, chemistry and literature, and in six languages.

Freerice currently has over one million registered players, who together have donated nearly 100 billion grains of rice to feed almost five million people since the game’s launch in 2007.

During World Freerice Week, players can create groups on Freerice.com that include “Freerice6” in the group title. Group founders can ask their friends to join and to each invite an additional six friends. Prizes will be given to the group founders who have the most people in their group or whose group has donated the most rice, as well as to the individual who has donated the most rice during the week.

“We can solve the problem of hunger if we join together to each do our part,” said Roman. “Almost one billion people go to bed hungry every night. With 6 Degrees of Freerice, we’re on our way to harnessing the power of online networks to make a difference in the fight against hunger.”

Follow World Freerice Week on Twitter at @freerice and by using the hash tag #Freerice6.

The World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide.

“In emergencies, we get food to where it is needed, saving the lives of victims of war, civil conflict and natural disasters. After the cause of an emergency has passed, we use food to help communities rebuild their shattered lives.”

WFP is part of the United Nations system and is voluntarily funded.

Born in 1961, WFP pursues a vision of the world in which every man, woman and child has access at all times to the food needed for an active and healthy life. We work towards that vision with our sister UN agencies in Rome — the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) — as well as other government, UN and NGO partners.

In 2011 we aim to reach more than 90 million people with food assistance in more than 70 countries. Around 10,000 people work for the organization, most of them in remote areas, directly serving the hungry poor.

WFP’s five objectives:

Save lives and protect livelihoods in emergencies

Prepare for emergencies

Restore and rebuild lives after emergencies

Reduce chronic hunger and undernutrition everywhere

Strengthen the capacity of countries to reduce hunger

WFP’s Mission statement

WFP is the food aid arm of the United Nations system. Food aid is one of the many instruments that can help to promote food security, which is defined as access of all people at all times to the food needed for an active and healthy life. ¹ The policies governing the use of World Food Programme food aid must be oriented towards the objective of eradicating hunger and poverty. The ultimate objective of food aid should be the elimination of the need for food aid.

Targeted interventions are needed to help to improve the lives of the poorest people – people who, either permanently or during crisis periods, are unable to produce enough food or do not have the resources to otherwise obtain the food that they and their households require for active and healthy lives.

Consistent with its mandate, which also reflects the principle of universality, WFP will continue to:

use food aid to support economic and social development;

meet refugee and other emergency food needs, and the associated logistics support; and

promote world food security in accordance with the recommendations of the United Nations and FAO.

The core policies and strategies that govern WFP activities are to provide food aid:

to save lives in refugee and other emergency situations;

to improve the nutrition and quality of life of the most vulnerable people at critical times in their lives; and

to help build assets and promote the self-reliance of poor people and communities, particularly through labour-intensive works programmes.

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> United Nations (UN).

The United Nations was established on 24 October 1945 by 51 countries committed to preserving peace through international cooperation and collective security. Today, nearly every nation in the world belongs to the UN: membership totals 192 countries.

When States become Members of the United Nations, they agree to accept the obligations of the UN Charter, an international treaty that sets out basic principles of international relations. According to the Charter, the UN has four purposes:

to maintain international peace and security;

to develop friendly relations among nations;

to cooperate in solving international problems and in promoting respect for human rights;

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